


Untamable

by MyGhostJustYells



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, College Student Sarah Williams (Labyrinth), F/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyGhostJustYells/pseuds/MyGhostJustYells
Summary: After arriving home for winter break, Sarah encounters Jareth once more during a walk in the woods.
Relationships: Jareth/Sarah Williams
Kudos: 33





	Untamable

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Untamable  
> Author: MyGhostJustYells  
> Fandom: Labyrinth  
> Rating: G  
> Warning(s): None.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or its characters. They belong to The Jim Henson Company and other licensors and distributors. This is a not-for-profit fan work.
> 
> Author's Note: This fic was written for Tale Teller’s Fright Night 2020 Challenge over on Tumblr. The challenge was to take a Halloween-themed movie and song and write a fic in any fandom inspired by both. I chose the movie Labyrinth and Miley Cyrus’ “Can’t Be Tamed,” and just decided to write a Labyrinth fic.
> 
> Please be understanding if anything is a bit off as while I really like Labyrinth, it’s not one of my normal fandoms to write for. I have not read any of the supplementary material such as the sequel manga Return To Labyrinth or the more recent Labyrinth comic, so I’m sorry for any errors resulting from that. This story is based entirely off the original film. Enjoy!

A few weak rays of sunlight permeated the gray overcast sky, causing the snow covering the world to sparkle a brilliant white.

It was the start of winter break and Sarah had just returned home earlier that morning. As usual, a rambunctious five-year-old Toby had been the first one to greet her as she’d walked in through the front door, bag slung over her shoulder and suitcase in hand, her father trailing behind her with two more suitcases. Loyal Merlin hadn’t been far behind, now beginning to show his age but still with a spring in his step, his tail wagging happily. She had even exchanged cordial greetings with her stepmother upon reaching the kitchen, an exchange that had almost even been warm.

As she went upstairs to put her luggage in her room, she couldn’t help but notice how much it had changed as well. Small alterations and redecorations had been done to make the space look less like it belonged to a child and more like a young woman lived there. The stuffed animals that, after some careful reflection, held little importance to her had been put away in boxes, but the ones she loved dearly and always would had been placed carefully in spaces specifically for them. She still had all her fairy tale books, poems, and plays, of course, but they now sat on nice bookshelves crafted from dark wood rather than scattered around her desk, bed, and elsewhere.

She had been okay with the changes. She had welcomed them.

Yet just a few hours later, after the catching up had calmed down and time shifted into late afternoon, Sarah felt a familiar restlessness descend upon her. Her bed was warm and familiar and comfortable, that was true.

But in spite of the pile of books she’d hoped to read while away from school, the paper on interconnected world folklore she still needed to work on, and the fact that most would insist she was really too old to go galivanting out into the woods anymore, the call was becoming too strong to resist. She could slip out for a quick walk and be back by dinner. It would be good for her.

And so she did.

The gray, snowy forest in the twilight was comforting, familiar, ethereal. She had walked these paths many times, usually imagining that she was a proud heroine on some epic quest. As she had come to recognize in reality, it was a tiny wood that had managed to escape the growth of suburbia around it by providing walking paths for people to use. But the paths and the wood welcomed her back anyway, under their unchanging shroud. This was why she could never, had refused, to fully give up her “childish” things. For when one lost their sense of wonder, their ability to imagine things that could not possibly be there, they stopped living.

A rustle in the trees to her left. Surprised, she turned to look, but saw nothing.

And yet, she was not surprised in the slightest when she focused back on the path in front of her and saw _him_.

Dressed in a white, regal outfit with elegant spikes, befitting a king of winter, he watched her with his utterly unreadable eyes. Eyes that were two different colors and seemed to hold a magic all their own.

She wouldn’t let him be the one to initiate this encounter. She wouldn’t give him that power. “Why do you come before me again?”

He smiled, a charming, mysterious smile that simultaneously called to her deepest desires and made her want to pull away. “Why do you think I have?”

“Don’t answer my question with a question.”

He exhaled through his nose, very subtly, and stepped over to a snow-covered tree, gently leaning his arm against it. “Ah, but my answer depends on what _you_ say.”

Sarah looked at him and, though maintaining her composure and unwavering demeanor, bit her lower lip. Complex feelings, of irritation, mistrust, lust, appreciation, and fascination, swirled through her being like the gray clouds overhead in the howling wind. And beneath it all, at the very bottom, a growing love she was just beginning to come to terms with.

“Ever since I entered college,” she told him softly, confessing something she had not been entirely truthful about with anyone, “many men have been interested in me, and I’ve dated quite a few. But they never last long. Sooner or later, they all want me to be something I’m not. And so the relationship ends.”

Jareth huffed, actually huffed. “As if such boring, mortal, _human_ men could ever be worthy of you.”

While her misgivings did not abate, Sarah couldn’t help but feel flattered. Somehow, instinctively, she knew that whatever his ulterior motivations, he meant his words.

It was for this very reason that he had never been far from her thoughts since her journey through the Labyrinth those four years past.

So she lifted her gaze and looked him in those mesmerizing eyes. A challenge. “If you want to be mine, then you must accept that I can’t be tamed. Not by you, not by anyone. I will always be myself and I refuse to change for the sake of any man. Can you, truly, accept that?”

“My dear Sarah. I would not have fallen for you had you not possessed a wild, indomitable soul. You, too, have never left my thoughts in the four years since I first laid eyes on you. No one has ever captured my attention the way you have, the way you braved the Labyrinth unflinchingly to right your mistake. I was captured by you, then, and try as I might I will never be able to break free.”

But in the breath before he had spoken, Sarah had heard it. The slightest hesitation. Even he was still caught up in a fantasy. And so with a look of longing on her face and the words “Not yet, then,” she turned from him and walked away. Walked away, yet again, from a life of fantasy and adventure and being queen to the Goblin King.

She hoped that someday she would be able to place her hand in his and let him take her to a world she could only imagine. Somehow, she knew it would happen in time.


End file.
